Chapter X.

Of Justification.

Of all questions, by far the most important to a fallen man, obnoxious
to death, is, "How may I be reconciled to God, and obtain a title
to eternal glory?" The Bible answers, "By faith in the righteousness
of Christ." It is here that the Church of Rome wholly misleads her
members. She gives the wrong answer; and therefore she is most fatally
in error, where it behoved her, above all things, to be in the right.

The doctrine of "justification through faith alone" is the
oldest theological truth in the world. We can trace it, wearing the very
form it still bears, in the patriarchal age. The apostle tells us that
God preached this truth unto Abraham. It was preached by type and shadow
to the Old Testament Church; and when the altars and sacrifices of the
legal economy were no more, this great truth was published far and wide
throughout the world by the pens and tongues of apostles. After being lost
by all, save a chosen few, during many centuries, it broke out with a new
and glorious effulgence upon the world in the preaching of Luther. It is
the grand central truth of Christianity: it is, in short, the gospel. Now
it is on this vital point, we affirm, that the teaching of Rome is erroneous,
and that, so far as that teaching is listened to and followed, it must
needs destroy, not save, her members. The point of all others on which
the Bible has spoken out with most emphatic plainness is, that Christ is
the one only Saviour, and that his atonement upon the cross is the sole
and exclusive ground of eternal life. There are parts of revelation about
which we may entertain imperfect or erroneous views, and yet be saved;
but this truth is the chief corner-stone of the gospel, and an error here
must necessarily be fatal. We forsake the one only foundation; we go about
seeking to establish a righteousness of our own; we trust in a refuge of
lies; and cannot be saved. "For other foundation can no man lay than
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."[1]

Herein we may trace the essential and eternal difference between the
Gospel and Popery,--between the Reformation and Rome. The Reformation ascribed
all the glory of man's salvation to God,--Rome ascribed it to the Church.
Salvation of God and salvation of man are the two opposite poles around
which are ranged respectively all true and all false systems of religion.
Popery placed salvation in the Church, and taught men to look for it through
the sacraments; the Reformation placed salvation in Christ, and taught
men that it was to be obtained through faith. "Bygrace are
ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves,--it is the gift of
God."[2] The development of the
grand primordial truth,--salvation of grace,--has constituted the history
of the Church. This truth gave being to the patriarchal religion; it formed
the vital element in the Mosaic economy; it constituted the glory of primitive
Christianity; and it was it that gave maturity and strength to the Reformation.
With one voice, Calvin, Luther, and Zuingle, did homage to God as the author
of man's salvation. The motley host of wrangling theologians which met
at Trent made man his own Saviour, by extolling the efficacy and merit
of good works.

The decree of the council by which the doctrine of the Church of Rome
on the subject of justification was finally settled, partakes of not a
little vagueness. On this, as on most other points that engaged the attention
of the council, there existed a variety of conflicting opinions, which
long and warm debates failed to reconcile. The somewhat impossible object
of faithfully reflecting all the sentiments of the fathers was aimed at
in the decree, at the same time that it was intended pointedly to condemn
the doctrine of the Protestants. But we believe the following will be found
a fair statement of what the Romish Church really holds on this important
subject.

The Council of Trent defines justification to be "a translation
from that state in which the man is born a son of the first Adam, into
a state of grace and adoption of the sons of God by the second Adam, Jesus
Christ, our Saviour; which translation cannot be accomplished under the
gospel, without the laver of regeneration, or the desire of it; as it is
written, 'Unless a man be born again of water and of the Holy Ghost, he
cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.'"[3]
The definition given by Dens is in almost the very same words.[4]
Justification, says Perrone, is not the forensic remission of sin, or the
imputation of Christ's righteousness; but it consists in the renovation
of the mind by the infusion of sanctifying grace.[5]
The Council of Trent teaches the same doctrine in almost the same words,
and enforces it with its usual argument,--an anathema. "Justification,"
says Bailly, "is the acquisition of righteousness, by which we become
acceptable to God."[6] It is important
to observe, that by the "laver of regeneration," the Roman Catholic
Church means baptism. It is important also to observe, that this definition
confounds justification with sanctification. But to this we shall afterwards
advert. We proceed to state the way in which this justification is received.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that there is a preparation of the mind
for its reception, and in that preparation the man who is to be justified
has an active share. "Justification springs," the Romish Church
holds, "from the preventing grace of God."[7]
That grace excites and helps the man, who, by the power of his free will,
agrees and co-operates therewith. Excited and aided by divine grace, men
are disposed for this righteousness; they are drawn to God, and encouraged
to hope in him, by the consideration of his mercy; they begin to love him
as the fountain of all righteousness, and consequently to hate sin, that
is, "with that penitence which must necessarily exist before baptism;
and, finally, they resolve to receive baptism, to begin a new life, and
to keep the divine commandments."[8]
This constitutes the disposition or preparation of the mind for the reception
of justification. Similar is the account which Dens has given of the matter.
He states that the Council of Trent requires seven acts of mind in order
to the justification of the adult through baptism. The first is divine
grace, by which the sinner is excited and aided; the second is faith; the
third is fear; then hope, then love, then contrition, and lastly, a desire
for the sacrament.[9] Perrone mentions
much the same graces, though in a slightly different order. "Besides
faith," says he, "which all agree is required in order to justification,
there must be fear, hope, love, at least begun, penitence, and a purpose
of keeping the divine commandments."[10]
The faith that precedes justification, according to the Church of Rome,
is not of a fiducial character, or a trust in the divine mercy exhibited
in the promise, but a belief of all things taught in the Scriptures, that
is, by the Church; and approaches very closely to what Protestants term
a historical faith.[11]We are said to be "justified freely by his grace," says the
Church of Rome, inasmuch as the grace of God aids the sinner by these acts.
She holds, moreover, that these acts are meritorious. She does not hold
that they possess the merit of condignity,as do the good
works of the justified man; but she holds that these acts of faith and
love, which prepare and dispose the mind for justification, possess the
merit of congruity, that is, they merit a divine reward, not from
any obligation of justice, but out of a principle of fitness or congruity.

The disposition for justification being thus wrought, the justification
itself follows. This satisfaction, say the fathers of Trent, "is not
remission of sin merely, but also sanctification, and the renovation of
the inner man by the voluntary reception of grace and of gifts, so that
the man, from being unrighteous, is made righteous." The decree then
goes on to describe the cause of justification. The final cause is the
glory of God; the efficient cause is the mercy of God; the meritorious
cause is Jesus Christ, "who merited justification for us by his most
holy passion on the cross;" the instrumental cause is the "sacrament
of baptism, which is the sacrament of faith," says the Council of
Trent, "without which no one can ever obtain justification."
The formal cause is the righteousness of God; "not that by which he
himself is righteous, but that by which he makes us righteous; with which,
to wit, being endued by him, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind,
and are not only reputed righteous, but truly are called, and do become
righteous, receiving righteousness in ourselves, each according to his
measure."[12]

Such is the doctrine of justification as taught by the Church of Rome.
It is diametrically opposed to the method of justifying sinners described
in the epistles of Paul, and more especially in his Epistle to the Romans.
It is diametrically opposed to the doctrine of the reformers, and to the
confessions of all the reformed Churches. All sound Protestant divines
receive the term "justification" in a forensic sense. Nothing
is changed by justification viewed in itself but the man's state,
which, from being that of a criminal in the eye of the law, and obnoxious
to death, becomes that of an innocent man, entitled to eternal life. The
source of justification they regard as being the grace of God; its meritorious
cause, the righteousness of Christ imputed to the sinner; and its instrumental
cause, faith, by which the sinner receives the righteousness which the
gospel offers. Thus nothing is seen in this great work but the grace of
God. To Him is all the glory. The sinner comes into the possession of profound
peace, because he feels that he is resting, not on his own good qualities,
but on the righteousness of the Saviour, which "has magnified the
law and made it honourable;" and he abounds in works of righteousness,
being now become "dead unto the law, but alive unto God;" and
these good fruits are at once the proofs of his justification and the pledges
of his glory. But all this is reversed according to the Romish method.
It is clear, according to the Church of Rome, that the ground of a sinner's
justification is not without him, but within him. He is justified, not
because Christ has satisfied the law in his room, but because the man himself
has become such as the law requires; or, as Romish divines are accustomed
to say, the formal cause of justification is inherent or
infused righteousness. The death of Christ has to do with our justification
only in so for as it has merited the infusion of those good dispositions
which are the formal cause of our justification,[13]
and whereby we perform those good works which are meritorious of an increase
of grace and eternal life. And, as regards faith, "we are not,"
says Bailly, "justified by faith alone;" and its admitted connection
with justification he states to be, not that of an instrument, but of a
good work, or part of infused righteousness.[14]
The Roman Catholic scheme, therefore, is very clearly one of salvation
by good works.

This is the "first justification," as the Roman Catholic divines
are accustomed to speak, and in this justification the sinner has no absolute
merit, but only that of congruity. It is different in the "second
justification," which is thus defined:--"By the observance of
the commandments of God and the Church, faith co-operating with good works,
they gain an increase of that righteousness which was received by the grace
of Christ, and are the more justified."[15]
In this "second justification," the man rises to the merit of
condignity,his works being positively meritorious and deserving
of heaven. It is here that the Romish doctrine of good works is most clearly
seen. For though there is a loose reference to the merits of Christ, yet
if our good works be meritorious, as is affirmed, there must be a positive
obligation, in respect of justice, on God to bestow heaven upon us, and
thus salvation is of works. "The merits of men," says Bellarmine,
"are not required because of the insufficiency of those of Christ,
but because of their own very great efficacy. For the work of Christ hath
not only deserved of God that we should obtain salvation, but also that
we should obtain it by our own merits."[16]
But the thirty-second canon of the sixth session of the Council of Trent
puts the matter beyond controversy. "If any one shall say that the
good works of a justified man are the gift of God in such a sense that
they are not also the good merits of the justified man himself, or that
a justified man, by the good works which are done by him through the grace
of God, and the merit of Christ, of whom he is a living member, does not
truly deserve increase of grace, eternal life, and the actual possession
of eternal life if he die in grace, and also an increase of glory, let
him be ANATHAMA."[17]

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the justified man has no certainty
of eternal life. He may fall, she holds, from a state of grace, and finally
perish. Should he so fall, however, that Church has made provision for
his recovery, and that recovery is through the sacrament of penance,[18]
--the "second plank after shipwreck," as the fathers term it.
"Be mindful, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and do penance."[19]
Agreeably with this, that Church teaches that "no one can certainly
and infallibly know that he has obtained the grace of God."[20]
To stand in doubt on this important point she enjoins as a duty, and anathematizes
the doctrine of "assurance" as a Protestant heresy.

Thus the fact is incontrovertible, that the scheme of the Church of
Rome is one of salvation by works. And the question is shortly this,--Is
this scheme agreeable to Scripture, or is it not? Papists cannot refuse
the authority of Scripture on this, or on any point, seeing they admit
it to be the Word of God. Now, while the Scriptures speak of a reward of
grace, they utterly repudiate, both by general principles and positive
statements, what Papists maintain,--a reward of merit. If, then, we allow
the Bible to decide the controversy, the Church of Rome errs in a point
where error is necessarily fatal. Her scheme of salvation by works is
a scheme which robs God of his glory, and man of his peace now and his
salvation hereafter.